Two Roads Diverged
by jumblegut-Lane
Summary: The Naruto world if Sakura's road took a different turn. Rated M for possible language. InoSaku endgame
1. Chapter 1

**So this story is based on something I was daydreaming about in class. I was just like "what if..." (I was going to name the story "What If") and it just came to me. **

**I'm horrible at coming up with story names guys sorry, but yes this phrase in from Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken".** **I called it that 'cause like this plot is like the road and like, two roads diverged and he took one. Like Masashi Kishimoto took that one and I'm taking the one less traveled by? You get it. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.**

* * *

Something had to give. They all knew that Sakura had been somewhat listless since Sasuke left. They all had noticed that she'd been struggling in missions, especially with the extra pressure put on her, Naruto, and Kakashi only being a three-man team. That's why most were not entirely surprised when she came back that one day unconscious and covered in lacerations. Everyone had figured that if it was going to be anyone, it would be her. She was the weakest link. The mediocre one in a cell that had been so full of extraordinary people. Everybody knew that.

Likewise, despite everyone knowing about the ongoing feud between the two girls, no one was surprised that Ino was the first person that Tsunade sent for with the news. And no one at the hospital was surprised to find Ino panting at the hospital only minutes after receiving the message.

* * *

"She's waking up," Sakura heard faintly. She squeezed her eyes tighter. Maybe if she didn't open her eyes, the sudden pain throbbing through her body would stop.

"She- wha? Sakura?" she heard a sleepy voice ask. Her eyes shot open. There was no way that that was who she thought it was. It was Ino. Tsunade stood off to the side.

"Sakura-" Tsunade began to say.

"You idiot!" Ino snarled. "You stupid idiot! Trying to face off against five enemies like an idiot! You should know how weak you are!" Sakura, having just recovered and come to consciousness, so she could do little more than blink stupidly in reaction. This seemed to infuriate Ino even more.

"Ugh, I don't know why we bother pretending like you're in competition with _anyone _in this village! Everyone already knows you're the weakest of all of us! Do just do your job as the weakling and trail behind instead of acting like you're strong!"

Ino saw how hard the words hit the girl, but there was no way she was going to back down. She was Ino, and she thought. Even if was she thought was colored by annoyance... and worry... and misplaced anger.

"I'm leaving," she announced, slamming the door before her will broke and she apologized. Tsunade frowned down at Sakura, worried. But this was how those girls pushed each other. Everyone knew that. So Tsunade left too, both woman and girl seeing it as the usual bickering that led the pair to improve in the future.

Which is why they were so surprised to find Sakura gone the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Just so you guys know the first chapter and the beginning of this chapter are set in the time right before and during that gap between Naruto and Naruto Shipuuden. After Sasuke leaves. The second part come around after they fight Hidan and the other guy. So there ya go! Enjoy.**

* * *

"What do you mean gone?" Naruto asked Tsunade for the fifth time. Ino finally cracked.

"It means she's not here anymore, dimwit! She ran away!" she snarled, lunging forward. Tsunade gripped Ino's shoulder and shook her head. Tsunade knew what it was like to lose someone when they were all you had left. She took in the broken look on Naruto's face and reached forward to embrace the boy.

"Fine then!" Naruto burst out, jumping up from the ground and past Tsunade's gentle embrace. "So I just have _two_ people to bring back now!"

Tsunade suppressed a smile. She should have known. This boy couldn't be beaten down by anything.

"Well if you're going to be bringing two people back, you're going to need to be twice as strong," she challenged. "I suggest you start training."

"I had just been thinking about that!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm going to ask Jiraiya-sensei to help me out! He is part of the Legendary Three Ninja after all!"

Ino pulled a face. She was part of the Legendary Three. But Naruto didn't even seem to think of that as he bounded out of the room to find Jiraiya God-knows-where. Probably near the women's bathhouse though.

"I don't know why that idiot wants to fine her anyway," Ino argued. "If Forehead wants to leave forever, I say good riddance." Tsunade knew that that was the sort of relationship that the two girls had, but that didn't stop her from getting more than a little irritated.

"Do you have a reason to be lingering in here?" she asked rather rudely. Ino came to herself and bowed down to the ground.

"Yes Tsunade-sama," she answered. "I was hoping that with Sakura gone that you might take me as your disciple." Tsunade could tell that it took effort for Ino to ask this, to admit that she could only gaina place by Tsunade's side after Sakura's departure.

"And why would you hope that?" Tsunade asked, keeping her face carefully impassive.

"I know, Tsunade-sama, that I don't have the chakra control that Sakura did, but I'll work as hard as, no, harder than any student you've ever had!"

"You better," Tsunade smirked down at the girl. "Be prepared to keep your word, because I'm going to work you harder than you've ever been worked in your life.

* * *

"After two and a half years you can only heal this much?" Tsunade snarled at Ino. "By now Sakura would be curing diseases and regenerating limbs. And she could break a boulder with a light punch!"

"Well sorry that I could never get the hang of the strength thing!" Ino yelled back. Sweat poured down her face as she struggled to repair the fatal stomach wound that the cat had received. At least, it would have been fatal had Ino not gotten to it. The cut finally closed and sealed and Ino turned to Tsunade to tell her, but stopped short.

Tsunade was staring at a scroll and her face was as white as a sheet. "Sh-she's back," she stuttered out. "She's been spotted heading this way by a scout-nin."

Ino froze. What did this mean for her?

"We have to go," Tsunade order. "Ino, come." The two burst from the ground, flying towards the village entrance with uninhibited speed. They arrived at the same time as Naruto, which was surprising because he'd been all the way on the other side of the village. He was huffing and puffing, but he looked as if he'd just reached Nirvana.

"She's back," he muttered wonderingly. A crowd began to form.

A figure appeared in the already-open gateway. She was wearing all black, and she seemed a bit taller, but no one could deny that unmistakable pink hair. The other ninja and citizens waited to greet her, saving the moment for Naruto. He had been searching all this time (while also training), but couldn't find even a rumor about Sakura. Even Sakura's parents held back.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled, bounding towards her with open arms. His hair and huge smile shone in the sun as he ran forward to tackle Sakura with a huge hug.

Sakura moved. A startled Naruto went flying by her onto the ground. "Don't touch me," Sakura ordered, her voice cold. She turned to Tsunade and bowed. "Tsunade-sama."

She turned to her parents and bowed. "Mother. Father." Her mother tried.

"Sakura," she started, stepping forward. Sakura stayed where she was."

"It's good to see you too Mother," she replied with no emotion. She turned to the crowd. "I'm off to the training grounds then if you all don't mind."

"Wait, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled, having picked himself off the ground. "Where have you been? Why did you leave? You can't just-"

"I _can't_?" Sakura asked, and even though her face was still cool and impassive, the air changed. "Don't ever tell me what I can and can't do. If you want to talk, we'll do it with our fists, and if you can beat me then I'll answer your questions. But I'll give you this. As for where I was, I dug up an acquaintance of you guys'. Shikamaru might know something about him."

Shikamaru furrowed his brow in confusion.

"What the hell Sakura?" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm not going to fight you! Just tell me!"

Sakura laughed, a sound so hollow that it echoed off of itself. "Don't underestimate me Naruto," she said. "You couldn't beat Sasuke and you can't beat me. I'm not the same person I was."

_Truer words have never been spoken_, Ino thought.

Naruto cracked his knuckles. "Fine. But don't regret this, Sakura." The two took off towards the training grounds. The ninja recovered from their shock and took off after them while the regular civilians took the streets. By the time the civilians got there, the fight was already underway.

Naruto was firing off punch after punch and using doppelgängers to attack her from many different directions. Sakura simply pushed his punches away with that unnatural strength that she still seemed to have.

Ino watched from the sidelines that were still forming. But even though the fight looked good, it was clear that Naruto was holding back. He could easily be called the strongest chuunin in the village, everyone knew it deep down no matter what airs they put on. Sakura could never measure up to him, not then and not now.

Back in the fight Sakura dodged a punch then hit a doppelgänger hard enough to make it burst into a cloud of smoke. then from behind came Naruto with his two other copies, his new technique locked and loaded. Ino understood why he did it. He wanted to show Sakura respect and that he wasn't going easy on her, but the technique was still much to powerful and unstable to be using on the likes of Sakura.

"Naruto, no!" Tsunade yelled.

"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto yelled, hurling it at Sakura. It hit her square in the chest and expanded, forming the deadly semi-sphere.

"_Shit_!" Tsunade yelled, leaping over the railing, healing jutsu already at hand. But honestly, she didn't believe that there was anything that she could do. Naruto's jutsu completely obliterated opponents.

"Interesting," Sakura remarked from the side of the cliff where she stood. Her black cloak had been thrown off and she stood in a black buckled shirt and black pants. "You've shown me an interesting jutsu. I'll return the favor."

"Wha- Sakura?" Naruto stuttered. The whole village was in shock. The old Sakura would have never been able to dodge that at all, let alone survive it without a single scratch.

Sakura ran forward, now on the attack and smashed at Naruto with an iron fist. He blocked with a doppelgänger and then made six more, using four to keep Sakura busy while he reconstructed the Wind-Style Rasenshuriken again. While fighting off the clones Sakura, completely relaxed, reached into her pouch and threw a shuriken of her own.

Naruto saw it coming and noted the strange shape. Kind of like a boomerang.

"Naruto, _dodge_!" Shikamaru yelled from the sidelines. It had all just come together for him. But it was too late. The boomaken flew back to Sakura, and she checked to make sure the blood was there, then licked it. A dark color slowly overtook her body. She made a hand sign and a familiar symbol formed beneath her feet. A sick grin spread across her face.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru yelled. "Anything she does to her— "

Sakura cut herself across her stomach and blood began to seep through Naruto's mesh and shirt. He winced and his Rasenshuriken faltered.

As they watched, Sakura's stomach wound knitted together, no doubt due to her medical jutsu experience. But to think that she'd trained it to this extent while gone was unbelievable. As a matter of fact, some ninja in the crowd were doing genjutsu breaking symbols, but it was very real.

As Sakura's wound healed, Naruto's didn't. Sakura did another cut on her face. It healed instantaneously. Naruto ignored the blood in his eyes as he struggled to throw his jutsu. Sakura smirked at his feeble resistance. She shoved her kunai deep into her gut. Naruto fell to the ground, writhing.

Sakura walked over and looked down at him calmly. She might have been commenting on the weather as she held the kunai to his neck. "Boom. Dead."

Tsunade pushed Sakura aside and fell to her knees, healing Naruto as quickly as possible. "What were you thinking?"

Sakura shrugged and walked away. A path in the crowd opened up for her like she was a leper and the whole village was dead silent. Sakura left.

Everyone broke into stunned whispers. Except Ino. She just stood. And stared. Shocked.

Besides that one smirk, Sakura's face hadn't changed throughout the whole fight.

"Just what kind of monster did I create?" Ino wondered aloud.


End file.
